This bold production begins with the powerful lovers saucily enveloped, his legs wrapped around her. The Egyptian court is imagined as feminine and hedonistic, all flowing robes and easy, barefoot physicality. Alun Raglan's bare-chested Antony, his hair scraped back into an unkempt pigtail, and dressed in what could be fancy yoga-wear, looks set for a beach party in Goa. Cleopatra, thrillingly played by Lucy Black, has her eyes intently trained on him. It is, ever so simply, very sexy.

You think back to this moment of sensual liberty throughout Andrew Hilton's production, as political ambition, empire-building and the ravages of war trample on the possibility of establishing a personal bond between Rome and Egypt. As always, Hilton's strength lies in making an advantage of limited funds (80% of the funding here comes from box-office takings) to produce a stripped-back work that confidently confronts us with the power of Shakespeare's verse. The staging is minimal, the costumes unobtrusive, and the lighting dims as the hope of love, and peace, fades.

With his fine ensemble cast, Hilton keeps the audience rapt for three and a half hours. It's not perfect - Raglan's delivery could be clearer - but it is absolutely compelling. The lovers' last scene together echoes the first, but this time her legs hug his bloody, dying form, reminding us of the journey they, and we, have taken. It was messy and doomed, and yet, like this production, spirited and irresistible.

• This article was amended on Tuesday 7 April 2009. In the review above we called Shakespeare's doomed hero Anthony, that should, of course, have been Antony. This has been amended.